by Connor Martin ’13

Later start times: a concept only existing in students’ dreams. Now, it seems like this could be a dream the Montgomery County parents have as well. A petition is circulating on signon.org that asks for later start times for high school students in MCPS.

The petition is based on the belief that adolescents need at least 8.5 to nine hours of sleep every night, but are not getting the sleep they need because of the workload high school students have in addition to their extracurricular responsibilities and the schools’ early starting time. The solution the petition suggests is that the school day in all Montgomery County high schools should begin no earlier than 8:15 a.m., 50 minutes later than the current start time. This, the petition declares, will increase attendance and attention spans while decreasing tardiness, irritability, visits to the nurse, sleeping in class and risks of traffic accidents. Overall, according to the petition on signon.org, later start times would allow for “optimal academic achievement.”

However, not all parents and teachers are on board. The opposite stance is that teen sleep and success in the classroom is dependent on the student’s ability to handle responsibilities. Teenagers would only stay up later and procrastinate more knowing that there is an extra hour off before the school day starts. Plus, later start times would cause later ending times, which would push back extracurricular activities, forcing students to stay up later to complete all of their schoolwork.

Currently, the petition has 8,760 signatures as of midday on November 16. The goal that needs to be reached to send the petition to Superintendent Dr. Joshua Starr is 10,000 signatures. The petition is online at signon.org/sign/changing-montgomery-county?source=s.em.mt&r_by=407275. The full article with teacher and student standpoints on the issue will be in the December 13 print issue of The Warrior.